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The youth minister for a township church stands accused in a federal complaint of downloading 134 images of child pornography to his personal computer.

Robert Kevin Carlino, no age available, of Dutch Mill Road is charged with knowingly receiving more than 10 graphic images of child pornography, “which had been downloaded to his computer, each of which had been transported in interstate commerce by means of computer.”

Carlino — who had been the paid youth minister for the Malaga Assembly of God — was arrested at his residence Friday by agents for the FBI. He had an initial appearance Friday afternoon in U.S. District Court, Camden, and was in the custody Friday night of the U.S.. Marshals, according to J.J. Klaver, spokesman for the FBI in Philadelphia.

Carlino is accused of downloading between Nov. 6 and 13 a computer folder containing 134 images of a girl engaged in “explicit sexual conduct with an adult male wearing only white socks,” according to an affidavit accompanying the arrest warrant for Carlino.

The child was known to be approximately 9 years of age at the time the photographs were taken, the affidavit said.

During the execution of a search warrant on March 17 — in which Carlino’s computer was seized — the suspect “made numerous admissions pertaining to his downloading and viewing of child pornography,” according to the affidavit by Lina M. Ramirez, a special agent for the FBI office in Cherry Hill Township.

“Carlino stated that viewing child pornography became an addiction,” the agent indicated. “Carlino further admitted to adopting false personas while online — alternatively pretending to be a 13-year-old girl and a mother in her 20s — so that men would be more interested in chatting with him, and sending him child pornography.”

“We are just saddened by the whole thing,” said the Rev. Randy Sabella, pastor of the Malaga Assembly of God. “We feel very sorry for him and his family. We are praying for him and praying for his family.”

Sabella stressed Carlino is no longer youth minister.

Ramirez said she began investigating Carlino on Feb. 18 based on a lead provided by the Serbian Ministry of Interior.

The Serbian ministry came across the child pornography during the course of conducting court authorized electronic surveillance of a person suspected of infecting computers with the “Poison Ivy” virus, she said in court papers. The virus allows an individual to control an infected computer remotely.

The person the Serbian ministry was investigating was using the Poison Ivy virus in “an attempt to steal financial information from others by infecting their computers.”

Carlino’s computer was infected with the Poison Ivy virus, according to court papers.

Carlino’s computer was monitored by the Serbian ministry “for approximately 24-36 hours during the period from approximately Nov. 6 – 13,” according to court papers.“During the monitoring period in November 2008, the MUP (the Serbian Ministry of Interior) observed the computer operator on the Carlino computer view child pornography, save the images to an external storage device and delete the images,” said Ramirez.

Reid roamed the streets of south London late at night for 12 years, hunting down and pouncing on single women as they made their way home.

Scotland Yard was forced into making a rare apology for its failings as the case was passed to the Independent Police Complaints Commission – the second of its kind to be referred in two weeks.

Detectives had Reid’s DNA profile on file from 2001 and were soon given the make and registration of his car, linked to an assault.

But despite being alerted to the 44-year-old football referee three times, officers failed to piece the clues together for four years – meaning that dozens of women were attacked because of their inaction.

One long-serving Met police officer said: “These are irremissible failings. There is a lot of soul searching as we ask ourselves why and how this could have happened.”

In January 2008, the case files were finally passed to a Scotland Yard murder detective, who solved in three days the investigation that had faltered for eight years in the hands of a local rape unit in south London.

Police now fear Reid, a chef and referee in local Wandsworth leagues for children, women and men, could have attacked hundreds of women who have yet to come forward.

He now faces a lengthy prison sentence after being found guilty at Kingston Crown Court of sexually attacking 25 women since 1995, two of whom he raped.

He had earlier pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting two other women. The case can only now be made public because reporting restrictions have been lifted.

Judge Shani Barnes referred to “years of inadequate work” as she praised the Specialist Crime Directorate, led by Det Insp Justin Davies, for solving the case so quickly.

Calling for psychiatric reports before passing sentence in two months time, she said: “I may have some observations about the unfortunate period of time these matters were allowed to continue through the years at various stages.”

The failings are another blow to the Met’s already damaged reputation for investigating sex crimes.

The Scotland Yard chief in charge of the Sapphire Unit, responsible for rape and sexual offences, apologised to the victims yesterday and announced that an official inquiry had been launched.

It is the second Independent Police Complaints Commission investigation to be initiated in two weeks, following the case of John Worboys, the black cab rapist and one of Britain’s most prolific sex offenders.

Police in south London missed numerous opportunities to catch him because of a similar series of blunders and a failure in their intelligence system.

Cmdr Mark Simmons, of the Met, said: “It is clear from the evidence heard in court that the standard of investigation was not what we as an organisation, or the victims, should have expected.

“Reid should have been arrested sooner and I, on behalf of the Metropolitan Police Service and as head of Sapphire, am sorry those women who were subsequently attacked by him have been caused unnecessary suffering.

“I am very conscious it comes hard on the heels of the John Worboys case and of the potential impact this will have on public confidence, and on people who have suffered sex offences to come forward to us.”

Reid stalked lone women, aged from 18 to 61, by following them home from bus stops or tube stations and attacking them from behind.

He was described by his victims as having a “strange smile” and “crazy eyes” as he silently pinned them to the ground with his hand over their mouth and assaulted them.

His victims included a lawyer, a chartered surveyor and a university lecturer. One woman was six months pregnant when Reid followed her into a lift in her block of flats and grabbed her.

She reported it to police but they later said that the CCTV in the flats was not working and so dropped the case.

Reid was charged and later acquitted in 1995 for an indecent assault on a woman.

The attacks in Wandsworth began in 2001 around areas popular with young professionals such as Clapham, Balham and Tooting.

Police immediately had a lead, having recovered DNA samples that were later found to be that of Reid from his first victim.

But it took almost 26 identical offences to occur before the local Sapphire unit formally linked them and admitted a serial attacker was on the loose, in September 2002.

Three months later Reid was stopped by police in the street after a member of the public had seen him following a lone woman.

No offence was recorded but the details were fed into the intelligence system. Had he been questioned and swabbed for DNA the case would have been solved. It was the first missed opportunity.

In January 2004 a member of the public gave police Reid’s correct car and licence plate details after claiming to have witnessed a sex attack in central London, but the report was not followed up.

The next month, Reid was stopped in the same car tooting at a woman and another note was passed into the intelligence system.

He became one of 11 official suspects in the sex attacks, But, inexplicably, the inquiry stalled and Reid was not questioned, arrested or tested for DNA, which would have confirmed him as the attacker.

In the next four years, Reid attacked at least 20 further women, taking the total amount to 71.

Finally, in January 2008, the files were passed to a Scotland Yard murder and serious crime team.

Mr Davies identified Reid as the suspect immediately and he was arrested, tested for a DNA sample and charged within three days.

When asked why officers in the Sapphire unit had not acted on the information they had, Mr Simmons said: “I have no explanation for that.

“That goes absolutely to the heart of why it has been referred to the IPCC.”

The father of a 4-year-old sexual assault victim is furious after his daughter’s attacker wasn’t sentenced to any jail time.

Jonathan Staat, 16, was sentenced Wednesday for his second criminal sexual conduct offense against a person under the age of 13. Charged as an adult, he was sentenced to five years probation, one year on a tether with a 4 p.m. curfew, and ordered to not be alone with anyone under the age of 16 without adult supervision.

“I was in utter disbelief. I was extremely angry at the judge’s decision to basically give this man nothing but a stronger slap on the wrist,” the victim’s father told 24 Hour News 8.

The suspect’s father, A BLATANT VICTIM BLAMER, Michael Staat, said he thought his son’s punishment was sufficient. He says Staat asked the girl to perform oral sex on him and she did it.

SHE WAS FOUR YEARS OLD!!!!!

The incident with the young girl happened last August, court records show. Three years prior to that, in July 2005, Staat pleaded guilty to another criminal sexual conduct charge involving a young victim.

In both cases, Staat pleaded guilty to second-degree criminal sexual conduct after being initially charged with first-degree and accepting plea deals.

“But still he’s walking free. So, the judge turned a second-time sexual offender back out on the streets,” the victim’s father said.

The prosecutor working the latest case said she’d hoped for jail time. The charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. But the judge said he didn’t think that was best in the long run.

“If he, in 10 years is to be a better person than he was…he will be better able to do so going through counseling, finishing high school, obtaining employment, and hopefully carrying on what you and I would consider a normal life,” said Ottawa County Circuit Court Judge Calvin Bosman, who handed down the sentence. “That is something that in my opinion would not occur had he gone to prison.”

Although Staat was not sentenced to jail time, he is serving 90 days in behind bars because he isn’t able to pay his fines, Staat’s father said.

Jonathan Staat has been expelled from school and has been ordered to undergo counseling in addition to his probation. His father says Jonathan will also have to comply with the sex offender registration requirements for the next 25 years

A prosecutor told Nicholson that the rapes involve two girls, ages 6 and 9 at the time, who were molested in the woods and in a bedroom.

An Anderson Man pleaded guilty Thursday to four counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor.

With the pretrial plea, Charles Randy Horne Jr. was sentenced to 23 years in prison, avoiding a potential prison sentence of 120 years.

“My 2-year-old daughter needs me,” said Horne, 30, of East Orr Street in Anderson at the hearing in Anderson County General Sessions Court. “I will do the 23 years, but I would prefer if it were a little less. I would like to see my daughter graduate from high school.”

Horne has been in custody in the Anderson County Detention Center since March 14, 2008 when Anderson County Sheriff’s deputies filed criminal charges against him.

Judge J.C. “Buddy” Nicholson Jr. accepted the negotiated sentence of 23 years on each count, telling Horne that the four sentences would run at the same time with credit given for 377 days already served.

Horne must serve 85 percent of the 23-year sentence, Nicholson said.

A prosecutor told Nicholson that the rapes involve two girls, ages 6 and 9 at the time, who were molested in the woods and in a bedroom.

According to warrants, the girls were molested between 1998 and 2000.

One of the victims did not attend the hearing Thursday, and the other broke into tears as she disagreed with the sentence.

“I don’t think he should get out and hurt any other girl,” the victim said on Thursday.

The girl’s grandmother, who has had custody of the girl since she was 9 and learned of the molestation when the girl was 15, testified that the girl suffers from a sleep disorder.

“She has night terrors and sleeps with a knife under her bed,” the grandmother said.

Horne apologized.

“If I could take it back I would,” said Horne in a proceeding witnessed by his parents, wife and other supporters. “I have changed. I know the Lord. All sex offenders are not repeaters.”

His parents, Charles Randy Horne, 55, and Debra Stokes Horne, 53, of Six and Twenty Road in Anderson, are awaiting trial after their arrests in May 2008 for the unlawful neglect of a child. Warrants indicate both parents knew about their son’s sex-offender status and allowed him to be unsupervised with the two children.

Prior to the sentencing Thursday, court testimony indicated that Horne Jr. had been a special education student, dropped out of school in the ninth grade, reads at a second-grade level and has worked multiple jobs as a cook at fast-food restaurants. Testimony also indicated he met his wife during rehabilitation for alcohol abuse and is mourning a child who died during childbirth in February.

Attorney Chase Harbin testified that Horne Jr. understood the charges facing him and had been determined to be competent for trial, which was scheduled in early April.

Horne Jr. served 18 months in prison in 1996 and was on probation for five years for committing a lewd act with a minor, resulting in his listing on the state’s sex offender registry, according to court testimony.

Five years ago, a Lehigh Township man escaped with probation for fondling a 14-year-old boy. The judge said he was persuaded by the man’s apparent success as a father and the impassioned pleas of his longtime wife.

On Friday, Dale Schaeffer was before the same judge on a second sex offense conviction. This time, Northampton County Judge Leonard Zito sent him to state prison after hearing similar testimony from the wife, who fainted during the proceeding and had to be brought a chair.

”I am confronted now with a much different situation,” Zito said. ”He is clearly a repeat offender. He is clearly an individual who has not changed since I last saw him.”

Schaeffer, 68, must serve 18 months to three years on misdemeanor charges of indecent assault and corruption of minors. He admitted to rubbing the chest of, and talking sexually with, a 17-year-old boy who had dropped by his house while looking for a missing cat.

Schaeffer told a probation officer that he has molested 13 children in his lifetime and engaged in casual sex with men and women, according to a presentence investigation.

As he was led out of the courtroom in handcuffs, he muttered something to the victim’s mother, prompting a sheriff’s deputy to tell him to be quiet.

Assistant District Attorney Patricia Broscius said Schaeffer is a dangerous man, and she had asked for the maximum sentence of up to seven years.

”He’s demonstrated that he has no control over his issues,” Broscius said. ”He’s got a sexual aggression that he cannot control.”

Schaeffer suffers from many health concerns, including diabetes and high blood pressure, according to his wife, Barbara, and defense attorney Edmund Healy.

”I’m worried about his medical care when he goes to prison,” said Barbara Schaeffer. ”I’m worried he won’t make it through.”

Schaeffer apologized in court and said he re-enrolled in sex offender therapy immediately after what he did.

”It took just 10 seconds to screw another family up and hurt my wife more than I did before,” Schaeffer said.

In the 2004 case, Zito gave Schaeffer 18 months of probation on a misdemeanor charge of indecent assault. A year later, he was resentenced to three to six months in prison after he was kicked out of treatment for being dishonest, according to the court record.

After he serves his new prison sentence, Schaeffer will have two years of probation.

LOUISVILLE, KY—United States District Judge John G. Heyburn, II, sentenced Michael Thomas Potter, Jr., age 40, of Mt. Washington, Kentucky, in Bullitt County, to 27 years’ imprisonment for four charges of violating federal child exploitation laws, Acting United States Attorney Candace G. Hill of the Western District of Kentucky announced today. Potter had previously pled guilty to receiving and possessing numerous images of child pornography as well as attempting to entice a minor to engage in sexual conduct punishable under law and attempted production of child pornography. Judge Heyburn also imposed a term of lifetime supervised release. There is no parole in the federal system.

According to court records, in May 2007, a minor female (“minor”), living in Mount Washington, Kentucky, met and began communicating with a person on MySpace. The minor communicated with a person identified as “Tasha Thomas,” who reported that she was a 14-year-old female. During the on-line communications, which occurred on several occasions, “Tasha” described engaging in sexual acts with her father and three other girls. Additionally, “Tasha” sent the minor a photograph of an underage girl, claiming that it was “Tasha.” The photograph showed a teenaged girl sitting on a stool next to a table in a sexually suggestive pose. The message accompanying the photograph was “send yours.”

“Tasha” invited the minor to meet her, engage in sexual conduct, and have her (Tasha’s) father photograph the activity. “Tasha” asked the minor if she “would do it with an older guy,” and told the minor that her (Tasha’s) father would be willing to engage in sexual activity with the minor. During the communications, “Tasha” gave the minor her address in Mt. Washington on Treva Court.

The minor’s father became aware of the on-line communications and contacted the Mount Washington Police. With the permission of the minor’s father, a police officer assumed the minor’s identity and engaged in on-line communications with “Tasha” on May 18, 2007. Law enforcement officials investigated the Treva Court address previously provided by “Tasha” during the on-line communications. The Kentucky State Police Sex Offender Registry revealed that a registered sex offender, Potter, lived at the address. A comparison of the sex offender’s photograph with photographs contained on “Tasha’s” MySpace page confirmed that it was the same person. Law enforcement officials identified the man as Michael Thomas Potter, Jr.

During the course of the on-line communications, the undercover officer—posing as the minor—agreed to meet “Tasha” at a nearby convenience store / gas station. Law enforcement officials set up surveillance at the location on May 18, 2007. Potter arrived at the location at the prearranged time. Law enforcement officials arrested him and searched his car incident to the arrest. When they searched the car, law enforcement officials found a digital camera (specifically, a Kodak Easy Share DX 7590 bearing serial number KCTD644306330).

Law enforcement officials reviewed several of the computer diskettes. The diskettes contained images (both still and in video format) of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct, that is, child pornography. One disk contained approximately 223 still images, many of which depicted minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct. Additionally, two diskettes contained multiple video files containing child pornography.

A federal law enforcement official requested a Seizure Order and Search Warrant from the United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky to obtain the materials previously seized from Potter by the Mt. Washington Police Department. The Court authorized the requests. A federal law enforcement official conducted a forensic examination of the computer seized from Potter’s residence. A review of the materials on the computer revealed the presence of numerous images of child pornography. Examination of the meta data from several images revealed that the images were acquired from the Internet in May 2007. The forensic examination revealed 257 still images and 37 movie files containing child pornography. The images depicted, among other things, vaginal and anal rape of very young children.

A review of the records for the United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky revealed that a Judgment was entered on March 29, 1999, regarding Michael T. Potter. The Judgment indicated that on December 14, 1998, Potter pled guilty to six counts of interstate transportation by computer of visual depictions involving the use of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2252(a)(2). The district court imposed a sentence of 27 months’ imprisonment followed by three years of supervised release in the 1998 case.

Assistant United States Attorney Jo E. Lawless prosecuted the case. The United States Attorney’s Office worked closely with the Bullitt County Commonwealth Attorney’s Office throughout the investigation and prosecution of the case. The Mt. Washington Police Department initiated the investigation and the Federal Bureau of Investigation provided significant computer forensic assistance in the development of the case and prosecution.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys Offices, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov/.

Acting United States Attorney Hill praised the cooperative efforts of law enforcement demonstrated in response to this very serious case. Hill noted, “The cooperative spirit evidenced by investigators and prosecutors in the Potter case highlights the goals and purpose of Project Safe Childhood. Together, we brought the full weight of the criminal justice system to bear against a dangerous child sex offender. The Potter case exemplifies the positive impact of Project Safe Childhood in our efforts to protect the children in our communities.”

A TEENAGER who has been on the sex offenders’ register since he was only 13 asked for “chemical castration” to stop him attacking young boys, a court heard yesterday.

Jonathan Bermingham – who likes to be known as Jonathan Ross – comes from a notorious family of sex offenders.

At the High Court in Edinburgh he was jailed for life for the rape of a boy playing truant from school, after luring him into woods in Falkirk. Even Ross’s lawyer said the case was “in a league of its own”.

The judge had earlier ordered Ross, 19, to be locked up five years ago for a similar attack on a nine-year-old.

Ross’s father, John Bermingham, carried out two sex attacks within an hour of each other and was jailed for 12 years.

He was released last year after serving half the term and is now fighting an order banning him from buses that might be carrying school children.

Ross’s brother has been convicted of attempting to rape a 17-year-old girl.

Frances McMenamin QC, defending Ross, said: “If the courts were to look for some explanation for why Ross finds himself in court today one does not have to delve very deeply.”

The lawyer said Ross had grown up in “a highly sexualised environment” and had never learned appropriate sexual behaviour.

Ms McMenamin said he genuinely recognised he had problems controlling his sexual urges. “Ross himself has raised the issue of whether what he calls chemical castration might be helpful to him.”

The lawyer said Ross recognised what the sentence would be “because of the gravity of the offence and because of the whole background in this case, which, I think it has to be recognised, is in a league of its own”.

Ross had previously admitted serious sexual assault on 12 June last year. Judge Lord Uist told him then that he remembered their previous meeting and ordered a psychologist’s report on the dangers Ross poses to the public.

When Ross returned to court for sentence yesterday, Lord Uist told him the report concluded that Ross would be “highly likely” to commit serious sexual offences against young males, leaving them physically and psychologically harmed.

The judge gave Ross a life sentence and ordered him to serve at least four-and-a-half years.

Advocate depute Iain McSporran, prosecuting, told how a 14-year-old boy was playing truant from school when Ross approached him in a park at Glenfuir Road, Falkirk.

“The accused gave the impression of also being a schoolboy playing truant, saying he didn’t want to hide there because the police would find him and that he would show him a better place to hide.”

They walked away together, jumped a wall, crossed the canal and climbed a bank to bushes.

Ross then grabbed the younger boy, and when the shocked boy began to shout for help, he told him: “Shout and you’re dead.” He then sexually assaulted him.

The 14-year-old boy now suffers from post traumatic stress disorder, the court heard.

FAMILY HISTORY FROM HELL

WHEN Jonathan Bermingham, or Ross, was put on the sex offenders register for life he was following in the footsteps of his father.

John Bermingham, who is 42, was jailed for 12 years in 2001 for two attacks on girls. He is now challenging an order which bans him from buses which may carry children.

Bermingham claims the order is contrary to the European Convention on Human Rights guaranteeing the right to “respect for family and private life”.

The Bermingham family seems to know very little about a peaceful family life. Defence lawyer Francis McMenamin said Jonathan grew up in a “highly sexualised environment”, which had made it difficult for him to learn appropriate sexual behaviour. One of his brothers is also in jail while his uncle is serving life for killing a 21-year-old woman.

“Please throw the book at me … I’m harmful to others I should be locked up for life,” he wrote in block letters that resemble a child’s writing. “I will sexual abuse men. Do this for the safe (sic) of others then I be able not to hurt anyone else. Judge I’m begging you to put me away.”

In another place he wrote that he had told his two 7-year-old male victims, “I will do more sex crimes with boys 4 to 14. I will molest with boys 15 to 18.”

McGill writes: “The reason why I molest boys. It give me the thrill to be in control of their penises and tell them what to do. …”

McGill, 50, wrote that his sexual offenses date to 1976 and that there were 15 victims.

A convicted sex offender due to be released Saturday from prison after serving 11 months warned in letters that if set free, he would reoffend, even against children. In the letters, Michael McGill begged authorities to keep him locked up for life.

“Please throw the book at me … I’m harmful to others I should be locked up for life,” he wrote in block letters that resemble a child’s writing. “I will sexual abuse men. Do this for the safe (sic) of others then I be able not to hurt anyone else. Judge I’m begging you to put me away.”

In another place he wrote that he had told his two 7-year-old male victims, “I will do more sex crimes with boys 4 to 14. I will molest with boys 15 to 18.”

Neither the Polk County attorney’s office, which prosecuted McGill and distributed his letters to other agencies, nor the Iowa Board of Parole, nor the attorney general’s office, which handles civil commitments for sexually violent predators, says it can do anything to prevent McGill’s release.

McGill will at least initially be housed at the community-based Fort Des Moines Correctional Facility, which he won’t be allowed to leave without an officer’s escort. He is supposed to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet at all times and be under maximum supervision for 10 years. But is that enough?

His letters, spanning 22 pages, were obtained Thursday by The Des Moines Register. It’s unclear whether he was addressing anyone in particular. They were written at some point after his latest arrest, in April 2008. Assistant Polk County Attorney Jeff Noble got them June 13, 2008, and sent them days later to officials at the Des Moines Police Department, the Iowa Board of Parole and the Iowa Department of Correctional Services. McGill, 50, wrote that his sexual offenses date to 1976 and that there were 15 victims.

Noble got McGill convicted of his latest offense, intent to commit sexual abuse. McGill tried to grab the penis of a 21-year-old man in a restroom at Valley West Mall on April 30, 2008. In a letter attached to McGill’s letters, Noble wrote that in the very week that McGill was arrested for that crime, he had also been arrested for “viewing or attempting to view” under the stalls in a public men’s room using a mirror. He pleaded guilty to criminal trespass and criminal mischief and was fined $100.

“He apparently maintained his position – that he is a danger to others and intends to reoffend – even after he was incarcerated,” Noble wrote.

“Obviously,” wrote Noble, “these letters are relevant to placement, treatment, parole, supervision, civil commitment and possibly further investigation into other crimes.”

McGill’s letters acknowledge both of the April 2008 incidents. McGill also wrote that among other incidents he:

• Was banned in 1990 from the “Gallery book store” for soliciting sex with young men.

• Was banned from “Younkys” downtown for having sex in a restroom with another man.

• Used a compact mirror in 1990 to look at the genitalia of a child in the next stall, then crawled underneath and had forcible sex with him.

• Approached a boy from behind at a urinal at Merle Hay Mall and molested him in the mid-’90s.

The accounts are sickening and scary.

In one letter, McGill writes: “The reason why I molest boys. It give me the thrill to be in control of their penises and tell them what to do. …”

Yet all those involved in his case say they have no choice but to let him out.

The Iowa Board of Parole had no choice but to approve him for a parole release because he completed the 11 months required on a special 10-year sentence created by the Iowa Legislature, according to executive director Clarence Key Jr. That sentence dictates the supervision he will get after release. Iowa law provides for civil commitment for certain sexually violent predators who have completed their criminal sentences but are considered too dangerous to be out in society.

A five-member Prosecutors Review Committee, appointed by the attorney general, and the county prosecutor who handled the case decide whether to pursue a civil-commitment hearing, according to Bob Brammer, spokesman for the Iowa attorney general’s office.

Brammer said the committee referred McGill’s case to a psychologist who examined McGill and reviewed his records and determined he did not meet the criteria for a civil commitment. He said without the psychologist finding the need for civil commitment, the committee cannot proceed with it. A multidisciplinary team appointed by the director of the Department of Correctional Services reached the same conclusion, Brammer said.

Among the criteria, the person must suffer from a mental abnormality that makes him or her likely to engage in predatory acts, and must have been charged with or convicted of a sexually violent offense. Brammer said McGill’s record contains three other arrests, one for indecent exposure.

Brammer said the psychologist, whom he did not name,was aware of McGill’s letters.

Beth Barnhill heads the Iowa Coalition Against Sexual Assault and sits on the multidisciplinary committee. She said the civil-commitment law is written so narrowly that few sex offenders meet the criteria. “Yes, I think the public is at risk,” she said of McGill’s release.

Barnhill says there is more leverage for holding someone like McGill longer if the original charge is for a higher-level offense or more than one offense.

Asked why McGill’s two April 2008 offenses weren’t combined for a higher-level offense, Noble said that criminal mischief and criminal trespass are simple misdemeanors, which are nonindictable.

Is he concerned about McGill’s release?

“Any sex offender in the community is a concern, some more than others,” is all Noble would say.

All of this makes technical sense, and yet something here defies common sense. A man who admits to being a pedophile, to getting a thrill from sexually assaulting people, who says he has done it multiple times and will do it again, will be released from prison tomorrow, and there isn’t a damn thing anyone can do about it?

A retired Marine colonel who taught a Reserve Officers Training Corps program at Ribault High School in Jacksonville was arrested Friday during an undercover child-pornography investigation.

John Harvey Watson, 61, was arrested at his Jacksonville home in the 1800 block of Spiceberry Circle after officers from the Attorney General’s CyberCrime Unit traced images of child porn back to his computer.

Authorities seized a personal desktop computer, an external hard drive, a thumbdrive and several CD-ROM discs from his home. Most of the girls depicted in the explicit images were middle and high-school aged, according to a news release from the Attorney General’s Office.

School district spokeswoman Jill Johnson said Watson was a four-year veteran at Ribault. He was removed from classroom duties after his arrest and will be assigned a desk job away from students. Watson was charged with five counts of possessing child pornography and is being held at the Duval County jail without bond.